Sunday, May 6, 2012

Sanaa, Yemen (CNN) -- Four Yemeni airstrikes on Sunday killed six suspected al-Qaeda militants and wounded two others in Lawder district of Abyan province, two security officials told CNN.

The Defense Ministry said that 10 other suspected militants had been killed in the province's Zinjibar district since Saturday morning.

The ministry said that the strikes were targeting two locations: a militant hideout and a training site.

Nine troops were wounded in Abyan's capital of Zinjibar when a mortar exploded, a senior Defense Ministry official told CNN. Two of the wounded were in critical condition, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the news media.

Local security officials said that the offensive has been the fiercest since last year, when the country began its anti-terrorism efforts.

More than 240 militants have been killed over the last month in the Abyan alone, the security officials said. Read More